post : Secondhand Smoke May Be Related to Hearing Damage

Secondhand Smoke May Be Related to Hearing Damage

Secondhand smoke damages hearing in children. A recent study of 1500 kids between 12 and 19 years of age demonstrated that the more exposure they had to secondhand smoke, the worse their hearing tended to be. By measuring the amount of cotinine in the blood of these adolescents, researchers were able to calculate the extent of their exposure to secondhand smoke.

Overall it was found that 60% of the kids with secondhand smoke exposure had some degree of hearing loss. The best current theory is that the secondhand smoke is actually damaging the auditory nerves in the still growing young people.

We often think of secondhand smoke as triggering asthma or causing breathing problems in younger people. But it now appears that secondhand smoke is actually causing neurologic damage. Here’s one more good reason why every smoking parent should quit.

Presumably they controlled for recent changes in family makeup, i.e. the addition (or loss) of a smoker to the household. At 12 to 19 years of age, these individuals would have likely have had many years of exposure to smoke.